


dead in the halls

by theseourbodies



Series: they stumble that run fast [2]
Category: due South
Genre: Episode Tag, Gen, POV Third Person Limited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-10 14:51:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8921344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theseourbodies/pseuds/theseourbodies
Summary: Set after episode 3.09 Dead Guy RunningRay asks the logical question, but for once it's Fraser who can't find the words.





	

"Ok, I give up, how'd you know?" 

"Know what, Ray?" 

"Know that it wasn't, uh, you know." Ray grabs Fraser's arm, steers him out of the bullpen, down one of the hallways with fewer people. "Know that it wasn't the other Ray whacked that guy? Or, I don't know, why'd you want to think it wasn't him so bad?" 

Diefenbaker trots behind them, telling Fraser with an emphatic couple of pawbeats and a decisive yap exactly what he thinks of Ray's tendency to wander; it's not the first time he's complained, however, and Fraser feels that he's defended Ray enough that Dief doesn't expect him to respond. Silently, Fraser paces Ray without a thought, used to his new partner's stride after some weeks working together--it doesn't bother him as much as it used to. At length, all he can think to say is, "You had it right at first. There was no doubt." 

Ray turns his whole body to face Fraser, feet taking skipping side steps to keep him moving. "Yeah ok, but that seems pretty dumb, right? How'd you know to know not to doubt your boy, huh?" 

Fraser just stops in the middle of the hallway, and waits for Ray to realise and stop, too. It takes three side-strides before Ray finally wheels around to bounce back-- perhaps uncharitably, Fraser recalls how he and Ray Vecchio used to move together, stopping and starting, like walking in time was just another part of the way they spoke to one another. It's funny how these things, these small changes are all that seem to draw Fraser's complete focus these days. For his part, Dief also grumbles, settling at Fraser's feet precisely after Fraser comes to a halt, as if demonstrating how it's done.

Ray doesn't notice the demonstration; he bounces on the balls of his feet, waiting. 

"You know, Ray Vecchio spent a lot of time trying to convince me that he was a bad cop," Fraser says finally, and he knows immediately that he's made an unexpected segue by the way Ray's eyebrows snap together. 

"So....So what, you tryna tell me you didn't think he did that guy because he told you he was a bad guy?"

"Well, no he never told me. He spent a lot of time trying to show me, however. And in all honesty he did play--well the vernacular is 'bad cop,' I suppose--he played bad cop remarkably well, but really that was because he was a good man." Fraser paused, examining Ray's face, "Do you understand?"

Ray nods his head, and then shakes it firmly, "Hell no Fraser, I don't have a goddamn clue." 

"Ah, well, I suppose it would be better to say that Ray Vecchio wore the persona of a bad cop, but in reality it was just that-- a persona."

"A, um, a persona?"

"A character, Ray." 

Ray nods slowly, presumably in earnest this time. "Right, ok, so you thought he was a natural golden boy... because he was a bad cop."

"Well no, Ray. I knew he was a good man because he wanted me to think he wasn't." 

They stare at one another for a moment, and Fraser knows he's still not being clear. Ray paces in front of him, rocks from foot to foot in the periods where his feet aren't moving, and Fraser...for once in this partnership, it is Fraser, absurdly, infuriatingly, who struggles to find the right words. 

During his first few months in Chicago, Fraser had often found himself contemplating Ray Vecchio, picking at the knowledge he had about the detective with whom he'd found himself affiliated--well, with whom he had affiliated himself, if he were to be honest. He'd found that his initial estimate of the man, formed sometime between revealing his status as a detective to a full holding cell and the moment he pushed Fraser out of the way of an explosion, had been both right and wrong--Ray Vecchio was lazy, rude, and duplicitous, but only if he knew you were looking. Catch him out of the corner of your eye and you saw the man who followed Fraser into danger without a hiccup, despite what his mouth was saying; you saw the man who took a blast for a stranger, a bullet for a somewhat-estranged friend. 

Fraser has a thousand anecdotes about Ray Vecchio, proof of his good character, but he finds himself hesitating. He finds he doesn't want to give them away to anybody, let alone this other Ray, this frenetic other being trying to fill the space Ray Vecchio left behind. He tells himself it's because it simply wouldn't be fair, to rub Ray's nose in how little history he has with Fraser in comparison to the man he's impersonating; certainly Fraser wants to believe that that is the case. 

"I don't know how to explain it Ray, I apologize." 

Ray blows out a gusty breath. "That's ok, Fraser, I trust you better than I know Vecchio, anyway. You say he's a good guy, and, well," he shrugs, "I gotta think he's at least done something to deserve that." 

"...Of course, Ray. Thank you for understanding." It isn't exactly the impression that Fraser wanted Ray to take away, but there's nothing to be done about it, now. He freely admits that Ray's unexpected acceptance of Fraser's judgement of character is strangely moving.

"Yeah, yeah, of course, don't mention it. Now come on, we gotta go see a guy about that thing." 

And indeed they do.

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from Homer's _The Odyssey_ :
> 
> For if I had heard that he was considering this journey, then he would have had to stay, though hastening to his voyage, or he would have had to leave me dead in the halls.


End file.
